News and views for Tuesday, October 28th …

• [Philippines] Following political unrest in Thailand, the relocated Miss International Queen 2008 pageant crowned its winner in the Philippines. “Angelika Santillan, 27, won the title of the most beautiful contestant from 25 other ‘women.’” — Transsexual beauty queen crowned in Philippines
• [UK] “A fitness to practise hearing has been told that a GP who wrote a homophobic and transphobic letter to a medical magazine has changed his story several times.” — Leading Muslim doctor faces professional conduct hearing over homophobic letter
• [UK] “Toilets were back on the agenda for Manchester students last Monday with the University of Manchester Students’ Union playing host to a debate on its new non-gender facilities … Challenging such transphobic attitudes was at the top of the agenda on Monday. First speaker Rebecca Dittman from The Gender Trust highlighted the history of transgender people “who have been in society for- forever really” and the problems which they face. “There is still bigotry, there is still hatred, but things are changing.” Ruth Pearce, trans rep from the NUS Women’s Committee, emphasized that non-gender toilets would not pose a threat to the other toilet users. “We’re not a threat to women – trans people are a bit like spiders. They’re more scared of you than you are of them.”” — Flushing Transphobia Away
• [India] “Bangalore human rights organizations, including the People’s Union for Civil Liberties-Karnataka (PUCL-K), have extensively documented police harassment and abuse of hijras. In Bangalore, as elsewhere in India, hijras are often unable to obtain identity papers because their gender identity and appearance do not correspond to their sex at birth. As a result, many cannot find housing, education, or legal employment – or, in many cases, even vote. The effective loss of basic citizenship rights – coupled with widespread social prejudice against people who violate norms for “masculinity” and “femininity” – leaves them economically marginalized and exposed to police abuse.” — Police Violence against Activists in Bangalore on October 20, 2008
• [India] “Indian authorities should investigate the mass arrests and ill-treatment of activists working on sexual orientation and gender-identity issues in Bangalore and punish those responsible, Human Rights Watch said today.” — India: Stop Abuse of Sexual Rights Activists
• [Sweden/South Africa] ” … the dissertation’s most important features are that since the South African society, like many other societies, strongly live by the belief that there are only two sexes and genders, this implies that Intersex infants do not fit in and become walking pathologies who must be ‘fixed’ to become ‘normal’. Moreover, since most genital corrective surgeries are imposed without being medically or surgically necessary, and are generally imposed before the age of consent (18), the children concerned, are generally not asked for their opinion regarding the surgery. Lastly because early corrective surgery can have devastating life lasting consequences, this ultimately means that the child’s human rights and citizenship rights are of a concern. These conclusions do however not ignore the consequences one has to endure for the price of being ‘different’.” — Intersex – A Challenge for Human Rights and Citizenship Rights, an undergraduate thesis by Annette Brömdal, Södertörn University College, School of Social Sciences
• [WA, USA] “On Oct. 16, Kristopher Shultz, WSU junior, was walking home for a book when he said he heard someone shout at him. The moment he turned around, his face was met with a fist, followed by kicks in his side. The next thing he said he remembered was waking up at 4:30 a.m. in the comfort of his home. Later that day, he went to Student Health, filed a police report and received CAT scans at the hospital. Shultz said he had worn a skirt to campus the day prior to the assault, which received some negative comments from students. He speculated that this was the motivation behind the attack.” — WSU shocked by hate crimes
• [USA] From the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund in NYC, “On Tuesday, November 4th … we’ll have lawyers staffing our hotline to respond to callers who experience discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression at the polls.” — Protecting Your Right to Vote
• [USA] “Reading various responses to the Mike Penner/Christine Daniels re-transition news has made me realize that I need to be more vocal about my own experience with this. There are people in the trans community who re-transition, or for various reasons; family, health, religious beliefs, etc., decide to never transition at all. These aren’t easy choices, and can be just as difficult as making the decision to transition. Unfortunately, there is a stigma attached to both re-transition and non-transition within the transsexual community.” — Stigma of de-transition
• [USA] “I don’t believe that transition is for everyone. It seems as though there are those who believe that, unless you transition, and do it in a certain way, you’re not a “real” transsexual. I don’t feel that way. In fact, I’d argue that there are far more “real” transsexuals who will never, ever attend a support group, go to a conference, meet with a psychologist, or otherwise take active steps to address their conflicts than there are those who actually begin the steps to transition … The fact is, just because you don’t transition or can’t transition doesn’t mean you’re not trans.” — “Character and Integrity”
• [Canada] “Actually, this makes a lot more sense as an explanation of causality than the other options that have been put forth to date. It fits well into the “Occam’s Razor” principle – it’s simple, covers a wide range of possibilities. Even better, it’s relatively easy to pursue further. (The BSTc investigations could only be done post-mortem, and long term follow-up research with transsexuals is notoriously difficult). Further, this particular finding also meshes well with the all too common narrative that so many transsexuals put forth that they “knew something was wrong” from very early ages – often before any awareness of social gender distinctions would be expected.” — Intriguing Research Findings …
• [USA] “Dr. Phil tackles the sensitive topic of children who identify more with the opposite sex. What do you do if your son wants to wear dresses and play with dolls? Or if your daughter tells you she wants to be a boy?” — Gender Confused Kids – Wednesday, October 29, 2008
• [USA] Sorry, Charlie, this is so gay … — Meet the world’s first tranny chicken